London 2012 Games: even Olympic medal winners need a helping hand

Team GB's single sculls bronze medal winner Alan Campbell helped to the podium after an exhausting race

Bronze medallist Alan Campbell helped out of the boat by British five-time rowing gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave after the men's single sculls rowing final at Eton Dorney. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters

In an example of how physically exhausting rowing can be, the single sculls Olympic bronze medal winner Alan Campbell from Northern Ireland was helped from his boat and on to the podium by Sir Steve Redgrave.

It was Campbell's third Olympics. In Athens in 2004 he came 12th in the quadruple sculls, and in Beijing in 2008 he came fifth despite undergoing surgery shortly before the competition.

The 29-year-old started rowing at Coleraine Academical Institute in his hometown of Coleraine on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

Campbell, was cheered on by a packed crowd at Eton Dorney, including around 50 family and friends.

"I was shouting from about 400m to go," said his mother, Jennifer. "This is what Alan had hoped for and he told us he could do this, so we had enough faith in him."

She said he rarely took a day off: "He's had to work really hard. He's been out there on Christmas morning when he reckons the others are not training. He said that would make the difference between being a medallist and not."